The Oppo R5 smartphone is just 4.85mm thick

In addition to the previously reported Oppo N3 flagship launch, the Chinese smartphone maker introduced the Oppo R5 smartphone. This smartphone also has a claim to fame, as it becomes the “world’s thinnest” available handset at just 4.85mm thick.

The Oppo R5

The Oppo R5 shaves quite a lot of the thickness from its predecessor the R3; offering a thickness of 4.85mm rather than 6.3mm. Despite its svelte dimensions Oppo has squeezed some impressive specs into the frame.

This extremely thin smartphone holds its own among rival top-end handsets despite its thinness. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 Octa Core processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. The Oppo R5 has a 5.2-inch AMOLED full HD display and a 13MP Sony Exmor sensor equipped main camera with f2.0 aperture and 5MP selfie camera. These are all very respectable specs.

How did Oppo manage to get the R5 to be so slim? Well there are a number of clues available in the spec. First of all the firm has managed to confine the processor in as small a space as possible by cooling it via “phase shifting technology” where in effect the smartphone’s aluminium alloy chassis is a big heatsink. Secondly it is evident that Oppo has saved some room in the chassis by using a rather small battery pack. The official specs reveal a 2,000 mAh battery is inside the R5. Beyond those slimming qualities we think that Oppo has also used one of the thinner display units that is ‘bonded’ to fit in all the necessary components in as slim a profile as possible – just like Apple has done with the iPhone 6.

Oppo R5 – slim but compromised?

Other key specs of the Oppo R5 include the fact that it has Android 4.4 installed with the ColorOS 2.0 skin. The phone measures 148.9 × 74.5 × 4.85 mm and weighs 155g. Despite its compactness Oppo didn’t have to resort to using a nanoSIM – a microSIM fits in here fine. Connectivity includes 2G, 3G, 4G/LTE, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Oppo R5 remote

The Oppo R5 will be available for $499 without contract. We haven’t been told an availability date.

Mark has worked for a number of years as a newshound on other technology news websites. He decided to write for Tech Assimilate thanks to this web site's open embracing vision of the fascinating world of personal technology. Mark has also worked in the printing and advertising industries for tens of years previously.